Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 27, 2015

The D'Oliveira affair was a controversy over the inclusion of Basil D'Oliveira, a mixed-race cricketer of South African origin, in the England cricket team selected to tour apartheid-era South Africa in 1968–69. D'Oliveira had moved to England primarily because apartheid restricted his cricketing career; he played Test cricket for England from 1966. The English cricketing authorities wished to maintain traditional links with South Africa and have the tour go ahead without incident; the South Africans publicly indicated that D'Oliveira could play, but secretly worked to prevent this. D'Oliveira's omission from the tour party, ostensibly on cricketing merit, prompted a public outcry in Britain; when he was then chosen to replace an injured player, the South Africans alleged political motivations behind England's team selection. Following abortive attempts at compromise, the English cancelled the tour before it began. Sporting boycotts of South Africa were already under way but this controversy was the first to have a serious impact on South African cricket. South Africa was almost totally isolated from international cricket from 1971 to 1991. (Full article...)

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